Copyright is a type of intellectual property right held by authors of original, creative works, such as songs, movies, and software. A copyright owner may sell copies of an original work, or sell a license authorizing others to reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works, and publicly perform a copyrighted work for a limited term. A license is a copyright owner's authorization to use a copyrighted work.
Copyright law distinguishes the ownership of a copy of a copyrighted work, such as a print of a photograph, a song on compact disk (“CD”), or a book, from ownership of the copyright. Purchasing or possessing a copy of a copyrighted work does not give the owner of the copy the rights held by the copyright owner. For example, purchasing a sound recording does not give the owner of the copy of the sound recording permission to make copies of the sound recording and sell or otherwise distribute the copies.
In recent years, the advent of personal computers, the Internet, and popular file-sharing tools have made possible unauthorized sharing of copyrighted works stored as digitally encoded information (“digital piracy”). Copyrighted works stored as digitally encoded information can be copied and distributed almost an unlimited number of times without degrading the quality of the subsequent copies.
Digital Rights Management (“DRM”) is one means by which copyright owners and digitally encoded information distributors have tried to control digital piracy and maintain control over copyrighted works. DRM includes technologies to prevent digital piracy during digitally encoded information transfer by enforcing additional restrictions beyond the existing restrictions imposed by copyright law. However, software has been developed which allows users of copyrighted works in digital form to circumvent DRM technologies. For example, FairUse4WM allows users to strip Windows Media Player® of DRM restrictions and is readily available over the Internet. Although the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (“DMCA”) attempts to address the problem of digital piracy by prohibiting the sale, manufacture, and marketing of products, such as FairUse4WM, the provisions of the DMCA are not often enforced.
DRM technologies are used by Internet music stores to restrict the usage of music purchased and downloaded online. One example is Apple's iTunes Store® (“iTS”). Copies of songs purchased from the iTS are copyright-protected with Apple's FairPlay® DRM system. Apple's FairPlay® DRM system includes encoding each song in an Advanced Audio Coding (“AAC”) format. The AAC format is supported by iPods and is not compatible with many other music devices, thus limiting the number of computers which may simultaneously play purchased tracks. However, tracks can be copied to an unlimited number of iPods, allowing loaded iPods to be sold on online auction houses, such as eBay. Purchased tracks can also be copied to conventional music CDs in Compact Disc Digital Audio (“CDDA”) format without any copyright restrictions transferred to the CD. Various programs can read and convert tracks from a CD to other music formats, such as Moving Picture Experts Group-1 Audio Layer 3 (“MP3”), that are used by competing digital music players, allowing multiple users access to purchased songs. Yahoo! Music Unlimited® (“YMU”) is a subscription service for online music connected to the Yahoo! Music Jukebox®. Users access YMU by providing a user identification (“ID”) and a password, which enables simultaneous use on three different computers, in an effort to allow users to access YMU on multiple devices. However, users may engage in digital piracy by sharing user IDs and passwords.
Hardware tokens have been developed to address some of the attempts to circumvent DRM technology. A hardware token, such as a smartcard or a pocket-sized integrated circuit card with embedded circuits, may be used to prove that a user is authorized to use digital media. Hardware tokens are often small devices that may store cryptographic keys, digital signatures, or biometric data, such as a fingerprint, that facilitate user authentication. However, hardware tokens may be cumbersome for users to carry, and often involve costly special-purpose hardware. Accordingly, copyright holders and digitally encoded information distributors have recognized a need for tools to prevent digital piracy and to encourage users to comply with the limited rights of use given by a license.